Tube construction



March l1, 1949. P. G. CHEVIGNY 2,462,845 l TUBE CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 2e, 194e Patented Mar. 1, 1949 2,462,845 TUBE doNs'rRUc'rIoN Paul Georges Chevigny, Paris, France, assignor to Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application January 26, 1946, Serial No. 643,786

(Cl. Z50-27.5)

10 Claims.

This invention relates generally to a method and means of supporting elements, and particularly to the supporting of electrodes, such as for example, in electron discharge devices.

In many instances it is important that an element be supported in a given angular position or in a Xed spacial relationship with respect to another element. This is particularly true in electron discharge devices where it is essential that the spacing between electrodes be maintained within relatively narrow limits. Furthermore, it is usually important that this spacing be maintained not only at one point between said electrodes but throughout their entire lengths. Thus, a parallel relationship between the electrodes must be provided. The longer the electrodes are, the more dilcult it becomes to maintain this parallel spacing throughout their lengths. This is particularly true when one of the electrodes is suspended from oneportion of the tube envelope, and the other of the electrodes is suspended from a diiierent portion of the envelope, with glass intervening between said portions, due to the fact that the glass usually distorts during the process of fusing it to complete the tube envelope.

An object of the present invention is the provision of an improved method and means for supporting elements, particularly electrodes, as for example, in electron discharge devices, whereby said elements may be supported in a iixed spacial relationship, and wherein adjusting means are provided for obtaining said relationship.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of an improved method and means for supporting electrodes in an electron discharge device.

Other and further objects of the present invention will become apparent and the invention will be best understood from the following description of an embodiment thereof, reference being had to the drawings, in which:

Fig. l is an elevational view, partly broken away, of an electron discharge device embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional View of a detail of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a wedge employed in Fig. l; and

Fig, 4 is a side elevational view of the wedge of Fig. 3.

Referring now to Fig. 1, the electron discharge devicethere illustrated is of the type adapted to handlelhighpower, such as several. hundred kilo- Watts; andiiszot large: construction. Said device includes an envelope I, generally cylindrical and elongated, comprising a metallic cap 2, glass portions 3- and 4 and a metallic portion 5, all being substantially cylindrical. Between glass portions 3 and Il, an annular hollow metallic member or ring 6 having a central opening 'I is arranged, and is sealed to said glass portions by means of feather edges 8 and El respectively. Ring G serves as a support and connector for the grid electrode. Another ring Iii is attached to the metallic portion 5 and serves as the anode external terminal, the inner surface of the metallic portion 5 serving as the anode. For dissipating heat, the anode is surrounded by a ridged member I I Whose ridges serve as air-cooling vanes.

Supported in the cap 2 are a pair of rods I2 and I 3 which servev as the filamentary cathode supports and leads. At one end of rod I2 there is mounted a at metallic disk I4 and at the corresponding end of rod I3, there is mounted a similar disk I5, which disks are circular, spaced apart, and extend parallel to each other transverse to the envelope I of the electron discharge device. Rod I3 passes through an opening I6 in disk H5 so that there is no electrical connection between rod I3land said disk. A plurality of parallel spaced laments Il arranged in a circle are supported at one of their ends from disks I4` and l5 and are connected together at their other ends to a nut I8. Current flows from rod I2 to disk I4 and through the iilarnents connected to disk lli down to nut I8 and up from nut I8` to the filaments connected to disk through rod I3. Th-e filaments suspended from each of the disks are in parallel and interleaved with each other.

The filaments Il are suiciently stiff so that While the nut I8 is not held rigid in position by any other means, the stiffness of the filament wires I'I and the rods I2 and I3 hold the fllaments substantially fixed in position. Moreover, since the electron discharge device is normally positionedso that it extends vertically, that is with the cap 2 on top and the rest of the electron discharge device extending therebelow, the` bottom portion of the filament, that is the portion at the nut I8, tends to remain in line with the upper portion. The cathode laments I'I, are elongated as will be seen from said gure, and are arranged so as to define a cylindrical conguration with each of the filaments circumferentially spaced from the other.

The lgrid electrode, generally. designated by the numeral I8, likewise consists of a plurality' of spaced parallel rodsl2, arranged in a. circle' and I5 and out 3 surrounding the filaments I1, and are parallel to said laments. The grid rods or grid wires are bent over at one end, as indicated at 2l, and welded or otherwise fastened to a bottom metallic cup-like member 22 while the upper end of said rods 20 are supported from a cylindrical member 23. Member 23 is bent outwardly at the upper end thereof to form an annular flange 24 (see Fig. 2). The annular flange 24 is mounted on ring 6 as will be described hereinafter. The grid I3 further includes a spiral wire 25 wound around the grid rods 20 and secured thereto as by being welded at the points where said spiral wire 25 touches said rods. i

For the purpose of mounting the annular flange 24 on the ring S, the inner end oi said ring adjacent the opening 1 is thinned down to provide a thinned portion 26, having a face 21, which is adapted to register with the annular` flange 24, said flange 24 having substantially the same diameter as said thin portion 25. The flange 24 is provided with a plurality of openings 28 circumferentially spaced around said flange and registering with threaded openings 29 in the thin portion 26 so as to allow threaded screws 30 to be inserted through openings 28 and to be screwed into the threaded openings 25. There are a plurality of screws 33, one for each opening 28. 1

Between the heads of screws 30 and the face 21 of the thinned portion 23 of ring E, several elements are arranged. One of a plurality o'f small round lock washers 3| is inserted immediately adjacent the head of each screw 33. Next is a single annular channel member 32, having a plurality of openings 33, circumferentially spaced in the bottom of said channel, the `openings 33 registering with the openings 28 in ilange 24, said annular channel member 32 being substantially of the same diameter as the flange 24 and serving to keep equal pressure on the annular flange throughout its entire circumference. The last elements between the heads of screws 30 and face 21 are two circular metallic wedges 34 and 35.

The wedges 34 and 35 may be best seen in Figs. 3 and 4 which show one of said wedges 34, it being understood that both wedges are alike in construction. The diameter of each of said wedges is substantially the same as the diameter of the annular ange 24 and the thin portion 23 of ring 6.. The central opening 36 in each of said wedges is preferably of the same shape and as large as the circular opening 1 in ring B. Furthermore each of the wedges is provided with a plurality of slots 31 which register with the openings 28 in the annular flange 24 so that all of the screws 30 may pass through said anges, but the slots 31 are substantially longer than the openings 28 and longer than the diameter of the threaded portion of screws 30 so as to allow for some measure of rotation of said members 34 and 35 even when the screws have been inserted and screwed part-way into the threaded openings 29 of ring 6. The wedges 34 and 35 taper from the thickest portion 38 at one point thereon to the thinnest portion 39 at a point diametrically opposite point 38. l

The wedges 34 and 35 are adapted Ato be rotated before the screws 30 are inserted, and then rotated a slight amount for a iinal adjustment after those screws are inserted to adjust the position of the cylindrical support 23 and therefore the position of the grid I9. When the thickest portions 38 of Wedges 34 and 35 are together at to said disks and to the cap or upper portion of ments interposed between one of said connecting one point, the thinnest portion 39 of said wedges are together too, and the two thickest portions 38 tend to tilt the cylindrical support 23 and the grid I9 toward one side. When the thickest portion 38 oi wedge 34 is immediately adjacent the thinnest portion 39 of wedge 35 as is for example, illustrated in the detail of Fig. 2, then the cylindrical support 23 will not be tilted with respect to the annular ring 6. Between these two rotativev positions of the wedges, various amounts of tilt can be produced in any given transverse directin with respect to the tube envelope. Thus the tilt of the grid I 9 can be adjusted so that the grid I9 is, throughout its length, parallel with and equally spaced from the lamentary cathode I1.

In actual practice in the construction of the electron discharge device of Fig. 1, the wedges are rotated before the screws are inserted and before the glass member 4 is joined to the rest of the tube envelope. The filaments of the cathode having been suspended from the disks I4 and I5 and the rods I2 and I3having been fastened the tube envelope, the grid and its cylindrical support 23 is placed with its annular ange 24 against thewedges 34 and 35 while the electron dischargev device is upside-down, and the wedges are rotated until the grid assumes the proper position with respect to the filaments of the cathode. The screws are next inserted and after a nal adjustment of the wedges 34 and 35, which is accomplished by a slight further rotation thereof, the screws are then tightened all the way to l thereby secure the grid in predetermined iixed relationship to the filaments I1.

While I have described above the principles of my invention in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation on the scope of my invention as dened in the accompanying claims.

I claim: v-

1. Means for supporting one electrode in an electron discharge device in fixed relationship to another electrode comprising a common support, connecting means attached to said support mounting the one electrode on said support, connecting means attached to said support mounting the other electrode at a different location on said support, and a pair of wedge-shaped elemeans and said support.

2. Supporting means as set forth in claim 1 in which said wedge-shaped elements comprise a pair of wedge-shaped annular washers.

3. Meansfor supporting two elements in xed relationship to each other comprising a support member, connecting means attached to said support member mounting -one of the elements at one place on said support member, connecting means attached to said support member mounting the other element at another place on said support member and relatively vrotatable contiguous wedges interposed between one of said connecting means and said support member positioning said elements with respect to each other.

4. Supporting means according to claim 3 wherein said wedges are circular.

5. Means for supporting two elongated element in xed transversely spaced relationship to each other comprising a support member, connecting means attached to said support member mounting one of the elements at one place on said'support member, connecting :means attached to Said support member mounting the other of the elements at another place on said support member, and relatively rotatable contiguous wedges interposed vbetween said means for mounting the other element and said support member positioning the other element with respect to the one element.

6. Supporting means according to claim 5 wherein said wedges are circular.

7. Means for supporting tWo elongated elements in xed transversely spaced relationship to each other, comprising a support member, connecting means attached to said support member mounting one of the element-s at one place on said support member7 Connecting means attached to said support member mounting the other of the elements from a plurality of points at another place on said support member, and relatively rotatable contiguous wedges interposed between said means for mounting the other of the elements and said support member for positioning the other element with respect to the one element.

8. An electron discharge device comprising an envelope, a pair of electrodes within said envelope, means mounting one of said electrodes within said envelope, a support for another electrode having a circular portion, a mount, means attaching said circular portion to said mount at a plurality of points, and circular contiguous wedges adapted to be rotated about a common central axis interposed between said circular portion and said mount positioning said other electrode within said envelope.

9. An electron discharge device according to claim 8 wherein said one electrode is supported from one end of said envelope by means of a support passing through said mount, said mount is in the form of a hollow annular ring secured in said envelope, said attaching means consists of screw means attaching said circular portion to said mount and said Wedges have openings' therein through which said screw means pass, said wedges being adapted to be rotated in rela tion to each other around a central axis to position said other electrode within said envelope in relation to said one electrode.

lo. An electron discharge device having an eiongated envelope, supporting means extending from one end or" said envelope, a rst elongated electrode supported from said supporting means, an annular member sealed through said envelope at a distance from said one end thereof, said supporting means extending through the opening in said annular member, a second elongated electrode extending within said envelope in fixed transverse relationship to said first electrode, a support for said second electrode fixed thereto, said support having a circular portion, means mounting said circular portion on said annular member comprising fastening means positioned eiroumierentially around said circular portion and fastened to the inner periphery of said annular member, and a plurality or circular contiguous hollow wedges interposed between said circular portion and said annular member and having openings therein for the passage of the aforesaid fastening means therethrough, said wedges being adapted to be rotated for positioning said second electrode within said envelope with respect to said rst electrode.

PAUL GEORGES CHEVIGNY.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Frye May 9, 1916 Number 

